Right or wrong, about hour or two before I want to serve it, I take the orange, give it a good wash, stick it with cloves all over (so it looks like The Death Star), and then jab it with the cinnamon stick. I pour the entire contents of the bottle of juice into a large pasta pot and drop in The Death Star. I bring the whole mess up to a light boil and then bring it down to the lowest flame I can get out of my stove. It sits that way covered the whole night. Not only does everybody love it, but it gets better and better as the night goes on. At the end of the evening, if there is any left, I toss the orange and refrigerate the left-overs to heat another day.

I made this mulled "liquid"-since we cannot seem to agree on cider or juice christmas eve. I used Martinellis juice, and 3 T sugar. After simmering the 30 mins I unintentionally let it sit on the counter with the spices in it for ~16 hours. I reheated it and was amazed at the flavor. It was a bit sweet because of the Martinellis, but what an amazing flavor. I used the lemon zest, and it brought a nice edge to the drink. I made it again using Tree Top juiice and drank it right away, and boy does it make a difference. It wasnt very good at all. My opinion to anyone is to try to use the real juice not the stuff from concentrate. Makes a huge difference. Just make sure to cut the sugar back and try before serving to check sweetness, and let it sit overnight to allow the flavors to blend.

Select a pot or pan large enough to hold all the apple juice. Toast the cinnamon, cloves, and peppercorns to bring out their distinct flavors and aromas. Do this by simply heating your pan over medium heat with the spices in the pan. Toss the spices in the pan occasionally to prevent burning. The spices should become very fragrant within a minute or two.

For the health-conscious who perform this step, it may be best to use a pan not coated with Teflon or other non-stick coatings. Examples include stainless steel and cast iron. Some concerns have arisen about toxic gases released from Teflon at temperatures required to preheat a pan. Skeptics who like their Teflon pans might consider toasting these ingredients for slightly longer times at lower temperatures.

I'm not an expert, but I do know this: I'm from Missouri, and we make a sharp difference between apple juice (the clear, supersweet stuff they give you in preschool) and apple cider (the dark, rich drink you can only buy in the fall). But I live in Canada now (Montreal, to be exact) and here everything is called apple juice - for it to be cider, it has to be alcoholic. But you can get the dark, sediment-y apple cider (just called juice) all throughout the year here. So maybe it's a regional difference?

As an additional treat, if you love cheese, try tossing a piece of cheddar, colby, longhorn, or other mild, stringy-type cheese in the bottom of your cup of hot cider. Eat it out with a spoon. If you're the kind that likes cheddar atop your hot apple pie, you'll really enjoy it!

Having cheese flavoured with cider or apple is great, but sticking cheese in your cider is just weird.

Being British, I'm going to give this recipe a go with 'proper' (alcoholic) cider. It's also nice to hear that Snakebite (a vicious lager/cider mixture) has been discovered in the States. There's hope for you guys yet!

P.s. If you put a little blackcurrant cordial in too, you make the even more deadly 'Snakebite and Black'!

"In short, in the United States, there's really not much difference between apple juice and apple cider" Wrong, wrong, wrong. Perhaps in some very odd areas they don't get cider, but most everywhere else you can find apple cider when it's in season in the fall and year round if you look.

Heck, you can get apple cider in Walmart! I refuse to accept that there is no difference when you can find real apple cider in Walmart. Have you looked in the produce cooler? That's where alot of places keep it. Who knows why they don't just put it with the other juice, but whatever.

I have never used peppercorns (but I think I'll try next batch), but instead use 10-15 whole allspice. I like cinnamon, so for a half-gallon, I use about 8 sticks and about 15 whole cloves. The surface peel of half an orange goes in next and the whole half gallon simmers in the crock pot with the lid off. The mixture gradually concentrates and my home then smells of spiced cider and the winter dry air becomes more comfortable.

Because I have diabetes, I make a cup of sugar-free commercially marketed spiced cider and add about a quarter cup of my highly spiced concentrate to bring it up to speed, then add a bit of extra lemon or lime juice and sweetener to taste.

In Utah (disclaimer: I am a displaced Californian, and I find Utah culinarily deprived), commercial "cider" is apple juice bottled with cinnamon. The locals serve it tepid; it is, shall we say, less than stellar.

I don't mind not filtering out the spices, but when it's ground, it attaches to the back of your throat when you drink and is NOT pleasant!. I highly recommend whole spices. I don't put sugar in mine, but sometimes a dallop of honey is great too.

To figure out what apple cider actually is, please visit a cider mill in Michigan (or any other fruit bearing area). The apples actually get fermented, just not fermented enough to turn into alcohol. So it's halfway between apple juice and hard cider.

No comment on the difference between juice and cider. Each to his own, as my Granpa said.

In Munich, and I assume the rest of Germany, one can order a marvelous drink called Radler, which is a mixture of beer and- in some biergartens, lemonade is used, and in others, Sprite. In my opinion, lemonade is better. The best is found at the Augustiner Monastery/Brewery, where the use a sparkling apple juice. If one uses dark beer, the drink is Russen. Prost

Big differences in cider v. juice ... cider is less filtered, and unpasteurized (hence its tendency to ferment if not drunk in short order, and the fact that it is sold refrigerated). Juice is more filtered, pasteurized, and vacuum sealed, and tends to have additives (sugar, water, preservatives, etc). One voter for cider in this camp!